


Home

by glacis



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-30
Updated: 2010-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 20:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glacis/pseuds/glacis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A vignette - Teal'c comes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

_Home, a Stargate SG1 vignette.  Spoilers for Exodus and Enemies._

This hadn't been the way it was supposed to be. Not at all. Daniel stared at the impassive face staring through him, and sighed. The infirmary wouldn't have been his first choice for intervention, and manacles, even padded ones, wouldn't have been his choice at all. Not for this man.

"Teal'c, it's happened before. Your son -- "

"You may torture me, but I will say nothing."

Daniel gave an explosive sigh. "I'm not going to torture you!"

"What then would you call these hours of lies you pour in my ear?"

Brown eyes he was used to thinking of as warm now looked like chips of black ice. Daniel shivered. "They're not lies," he whispered, feeling the cold go straight to his heart and settle there. He couldn't lose another one to Apophis.

Not this one, too.

"You killed Ahmonet. Do you remember that?"

Teal'c stared through him.

"She wasn't an enemy of Apophis. She was his wife. But you killed her." Daniel had to stop and clear his throat. "She was my wife, too. My Sha're. But you killed her. Not for Apophis." Another unavoidable pause, to swallow more tears he refused to shed. "For me."

"You lie."

Denial as solid as granite. "You refuse to admit the truth. Because Apophis has manipulated your mind. But it is the truth. Think. Remember."

Teal'c closed his eyes. Daniel sighed once more, then turned and walked from the infirmary.

The next morning, a miracle had happened. Daniel dragged himself into the briefing room from his office, one hand rubbing at the crick in his neck he'd given himself from falling asleep at his desk. Not that it had done much good, since he hadn't been able to find a blasted thing in any of his research about how to combat Goa'uld mind control. Then he stopped in the doorway and stared in disbelief at the his teammates.

All of them.

"What did I miss by falling asleep?" he asked warily. Jack beamed at him.

"Teal'c came back to himself in the wee hours. Sam can tell you all about it."

Sam tried, detailing something to do with Tok'ra technology and surface memory engrams, but Daniel was too busy staring at Teal'c to notice. Then they were walking toward the command room, and Daniel was still staring at Teal'c, and he'd finally decided that regardless of how nebulous he needed to alert Jack that something was off, when Teal'c grabbed him. Drew Daniel's own weapon faster than Daniel had ever managed it, and held the muzzle to Daniel's right temple.

"Take me to the Stargate!"

That was what was wrong. Teal'c's eyes had still been coated with ice.

Alarms went off. Airmen with rifles lined the walls. Jack was saying "For crying out loud!" and Sam was saying "Teal'c! No!" and Hammond was yelling "Hold your fire!" and Selmac was using Jacob's body to get between Teal'c and the Stargate and all Daniel could say was, "Is this it?"

"Get out of my way! Still your tongue, Tau'ri, or I will still it forever!" The first was addressed at Jack, who reluctantly did. The second was to Daniel, who ignored the command completely. He'd had a lot of practice at that, but never under these circumstances.

Dragged backward along the ramp as Teal'c yelled out coordinates, Daniel said, very softly in the mother tongue heard only on Chulak, "I am your heart, and you are mine; my soul is in the palm of your hand."

Teal'c froze. The gun didn't waver. The alarms still shrieked, but everyone in the Gate room froze in response to Teal'c's sudden immobility.

"That is impossible," Teal'c replied in the same language.

In English, as calmly as he could, Daniel continued. "You told me, if the end should come and we should fail, that in the moment of our failure, we would say those words, and we would know that we had won. Even in death. We'd win, because we'd be free, and we would be together. And nobody could take that from us."

"Impossible," Teal'c repeated, but his voice was uncertain for the first time since he'd bluffed his way aboard their ship.

"Will you take that from us? Will you do as Apophis bids, and make us lose, even though we live? Because if you do, if you will ... if you can, then you might as well kill me. Because you are my heart, and I am yours; your soul is in the palm of my hand." He switched to Teal'c's first language for the last sentence, and relaxed completely in Teal'c's grip. He'd done everything he could to make Teal'c understand the truth. If this offering didn't do it, then nothing would.

 

Teal'c lowered his face to the neck of the Tau'ri whom he held prisoner, without breaking eye contact with his enemies or lowering his weapon. The scent of DanielJackson, the feel of his body against Teal'c's own, but most importantly, the ancient words that could only be known to one who had gone through the ritual of cleaving -- these things confused him.

For if DanielJackson spoke the truth, then Teal'c's world was built on lies. And the words he spoke could be nothing but true.

Images assaulted him. Sand, wind blowing it in his eyes. Hostile weapon-fire. A brightly-colored tent; a woman within, a God, bringing death to the man Teal'c now held in his arms. Teal'c himself, raising his weapon, destroying the God who was paired with his own, to save the Tau'ri.

Emotions flooded him. What was truth? What fiction? His task had been infiltration, not a treason ... and yet, there was truth in what DanielJackson said. Truth in the weight of his body against Teal'c's. Truth in the trust he showed, the surrender he offered.

Going with instinct, since his mind was awash with conflicting needs, Teal'c aimed the gun at Hammond and turned DanielJackson in his arms. Keeping the Gate at his back and the armed men at bay with his weapon on their leader, he risked looking into DanielJackson's eyes.

This, too, he recognized, in a moment that went past training, past memory, deeper than thought. Teal'c lowered his head and covered DanielJackson's mouth with his, eyes closing, gun slowly dropping as he recognized the one truth in the web of lies clouding his mind.

He knew Daniel. Because Daniel was his heart, and he was Daniel's; they held one another's souls in the palms of their respective hands, and where their souls went, their honor must surely follow.

"Stand down." Hammond's voice came from very far away. Fingers curled around his hand, and he allowed O'Neill to take his weapon. This freed both Teal'c's hands to hold Daniel, and he did so.

"Uh, General, whattaya say we don't ask? I sure as hell won't tell."

Teal'c didn't hear the rest of the conversation. The strain of his punishment at Apophis' hands caught up with him, and his last conscious thought was to continue holding Daniel, because without him, Teal'c would be lost. And he had been lost too long. He would not be lost again.

 

The infirmary was quiet at three in the morning. Janet had assured Daniel that Teal'c was in no physical danger. Junior was taking good care of him. Nobody, unfortunately, could tell him what sort of mental and emotional battles Teal'c was fighting, though.

No one had mentioned the scene in the Gateroom, either. Sam had stayed for several hours before patting him gently on the shoulder and slipping out. Jack was still there. Teal'c hadn't let go of Daniel's hand since he collapsed on the ramp, so Daniel certainly wasn't going anywhere.

"So. What did you say to him?"

Jack's voice, soft as it was coming out of the shadows, made Daniel jump a little. He smiled, more a nervous tic than a real smile, and shrugged one shoulder. "Just said we needed him, and asked him to come back."

"Uh-huh." A world of disbelief in two syllables, and a willingness not to push. "How about the smooch?" Well, not to push much.

"Oh," Daniel hedged, "it's a ... Jaffa lie detecting thing."

Dead silence met his admittedly absolutely unbelievable response. Funnily enough, in its way, it was the naked truth.

"Ooo-kay," Jack finally sighed. "I'm so glad he accused me of torturing him and didn't try to see if I was telling the truth."

Daniel's mouth twitched and he squeezed Teal'c's hand gently. "So am I, Jack."

"I'm not asking," Jack cautioned him.

"I'm not telling," Daniel assured him.

Jack came up to stand at his shoulder for a few moments, staring down at Teal'c. "Take care of him." He patted the same shoulder Sam had, almost as gently.

"Always," Daniel answered, not looking away from Teal'c's face. He didn't look up as Jack left.

An eternity later, Teal'c's eyebrows lowered, then his eyes popped open. Daniel leaned over and looked. Smiled. Brushed a kiss over the tip of his nose.

The ice was gone.

"Do you remember now, Teal'c?" Daniel asked gently. "Do you know the truth?"

"Yes," Teal'c answered him. "I hold it in my hand." With that, he pulled Daniel further over until he could kiss him properly. Daniel smiled through the kiss.

This was the way it was supposed to be. This was his choice. When he could speak again, he whispered, "Welcome back."

"It is good to be home," Teal'c whispered back.

end


End file.
